Consequences

Have you ever seen a wood pigeon without his tail feathers?!!

This is the background:

Wood pigeons visit us every day and have been doing so for about six years. Some of them are so trusting that they will eat seeds or nuts off our hands. We have slowly learned to distinguish their personalities, likes and dislikes, as well as their physical characteristics. As they have ours. They know we live inside the house and that they can make us come out if they look in at us through the windows on either side of the house.

 

This is the story:

It was very hot last Saturday and we had lunch on the north side of the house where it is cooler. I forgot to close the kitchen door and sat down to check something on the computer. After a while I went out into the kitchen to make coffee... and on the kitchen table sat a wood pigeon and looked at me. It panicked and made for the window, that was not open, and fell to the table. I sprang to close the door to the living room and Mike came running to grab the pigeon to carry it out into freedom. He got hold of the wings, but not the shoulders, and the pigeon was able to pull itself some inches forward. Suddenly, the kitchen and Mikes hands were full of tail feathers and down. Mike grabbed again - this time wings and shoulders - and got the pigeon outside and it flew off. Not a happy day for us, we felt so sorry for the pigeon, however, never knew that they had a survival mechanism so they could shed their tail feathers in a split second.

The next day the pigeon came back and wanted seeds - he has been back every day since the incident. Today his tail feathers have just started to show again.

ODC: Unusual

Done